I think if you're going heavy Reveal max Fire Scorpions is too important to not do it. These give you the much needed interaction, ensure your Alchemists/Vattier to be the big swings they want to be, give Leo a fair bit of flexibility and are 10 points even if blanked.

Found Mangonel to be okay, but not stellar; especially if many people run Muzzle. Standard Bearers in general are very similar in value to Mangonels; didn't really like them much in Morvran, but think they're better if you go Calveit (which is where you omit Fire Scorpion btw). Spotters I found a tad underwhelming at times, especially since you want to play your high-strength units a bit earlier in general (though Knight is okay I presume).

Not a big fan of Avallac'h here. You don't have answers to your opponent's gameplan, but make it more likely your opponent has them.

How do these new decks play against mill? I've only played once since the patch and that was me mugging a poor dude running Bran.

No clue I'm afraid, I've not met mill at all, although I can't imagine it to be too good since many other decks got considerably stronger while mill got nothing.

The new golden keg is quite interesting since its effects can be repeated if it's moved (i.e. Dwarven Mercenary). On the downside, it can be overridden by weather. It does feel like weather is overnerfed though. It's true the mechanic was strong, but right now, I could regularly tick two rows on my opponents and they would still generate more than enough points to win. It really is Iris or bust (that and the fact that weather clear is at a low right now).

I wish there'd be more casual mode players so I don't have to queue so long ...

Is Vert at PT Ixalan or something or why is he not playing?

Haven't seen Mill in a long while either, no idea.

Yeah, had some problems against Ale of the Ancestors while playing Spellatael, because it replaced the gold hazard effect with the froth and I had no real way to remove it short of passing the round...and then my opponent had renew

Most people are playing ranked right now, I guess.

Since Eredin's at a standstill I'm trying out handbuff Francesca. The deck is complex. I can't figure out the ideal configuration.

Just about the only things I can say for sure are I want Iorveth, Swordmaster, Aelirenn + BMC, some Dragoons, and some Hawker Supports. The other cards have been very much in flux. Isengrim is great but the silver slots are cramped so there's a cost to running Morenn + Toruviel, which puts pressure on the mulligan. Ithlinne using Quen on the Swordmasters is also great, but she's very low tempo and also puts pressure on the mulligan. Quen is also not easy to use to max value: sure I can buff a Swordmaster, but the second Quen will not be worth much. Saesenthesis should be great given the large number of elves, but I've yet to run her - it's possible that with 3x Swordmasters, there won't be enough big targets to use her effect on. I feel like Scorch is almost a necessity, but ST doesn't have good ways to manipulate health (unlike Eredin with its boatload of control tools) so that Myrgtabrakke might be necessary, which cramps the silver slots even more. Finally Hattori isn't bad but lacks good animation targets. Toruviel is the best one, but the requirement isn't easy to meet. Other possibilities are the Vrihedd Brigades and Commandos which could be good with the Francesca toolbox.

Are you playing the deck too Lurker?

What happens if you play Emhyr with no cards in hand?

Mill does great against handbuff Francesca and solid vs. reveal.

It still has some real issues with Monsters and simply losing to itself, though. It's a deck that needs you to really have a good opener and beats your face in if you don't.

No, Banedon, I'm missing Iorveth and I'm holding off on crafting for now till I get a few more kegs from rank ups. I have the rest of the deck, however, and I'm going to try it eventually. I don't think Ithlinne into Quen is that bad, though, as it is quite nice in my Spellatael deck. All just theory for now.

I guess nothing happens when you play emhyr as your last card. I never ran into that situation, though.

Mill seems at least well-positioned vs. Consume, since Sweers > Nekkers. Consume looks pretty strong right now so that's a plus. I'm surprised you think it works great against handbuff Francesca. They don't exactly have much thinning and are sure to stop once they identify what they're playing against.

It's surprising spies has completely dropped out of the meta. The deck didn't take any nerfs, did it? Unless people are just spamming the new cards, or if the power creep is unreal, it should remain a player.

Finally about handbuff: I've played it a bit now and find I somewhat dislike it. It builds up to really flashy Swordmasters (easily worth ~20 points each) but it really struggles with tempo to get there. Like, just look at the card it uses. Vrihedd Dragoons: 7 power. Hawker Support: 6 power. Francesca: 7 power. Isengrim: potentially 21 power, but (!!) he doesn't do nearly as much if the opponent has already passed and he needs units already on the board. Toruviel is also vulnerable to locks. Ida: 15 power, but requires opponent to have 6 units on board. Even Iorveth, key to the entire archetype, can't always be played since he must kill a target to trigger. Aelirenn is the only card that's semi-good at maintaining tempo, but she's not enough. Comparatively Eredin maintains tempo much easier: Imlerith is 19 power after frost, Eredin into Navigator into WH Warrior trigger is also 19 power (21 power after frost), and it can just play something like Drowner for 11 power (13 after frost). Upshot is I can't easily play cards like Yaevinn because I can't catch up in one card, and if my opponent plays weather I'm forced to pass since if I don't, I'll never catch up in tempo. I actually tried running Avallach: The Sage to take my opponent's card for tempo - he's conveniently an elf too - but boy is that card unreliable. Avallach into something like Frightener or John Natalis are both devastating to the already low-tempo deck. Dipping into Dwarves could buy more tempo but each Elf removed is one less target for Iorveth.

I dunno if there's a solution. If you have any ideas, please share.

Spies dropping out of the meta? The only deck I've played against more often since the patch is various flavours of bran decks. I have seen Consume monsters exactly once, however.

Maybe this discussion coming from a different angle might help you: https://www.reddit.com/r/gwent/comments/7b46el/how_do_you_play_against_francesca_swordmasters/

Funny. The decks I run into most often are Bran & Consume.

The discussion in that thread hit the nail on the head. The deck is low tempo. Playing against it, it's not hard to tempo it out, and then you can pass up two cards. They'll go for maximum bleed round 2 since in a short round 3 their Swordmasters are so strong, but you'd still be up at least one card in round 3. You could even be up two cards if they don't use a Swordmaster. Even in a short round 3 you can play something like Ifrit to negate a lot of the Swordmaster value. Scorch goes through Quen, you should hopefully still have some high-tempo plays (their deck is so low tempo), etc.

Lurker are you playing Spellatael? If so, what's your opinion on Yennefer? I've been thinking of a deck that plays few creatures and uses Yennefer's Chironex mode as the primary option. Spells seems like the obvious home for that. I'm also considering taking up Spells myself, since Francesca doesn't look very promising. Do you have a list to share? Also, do you know if cards like Milva return leaders?

Muzzle deserves much more credit than I gave it. First time I saw it I was like lol Kayran 2.0, but it's so much better than Kayran - it takes the deathwish and puts it on your side. If the unit had a beneficial effect you get it as well. Nekkers, Morkvarg, Dragoons are all great targets, taking Morkvarg even screws with the Cerys timer while providing you with carryover. Great card, I'm currently running it in the mostly-terrible ST gold slot.

EDIT: Sorry didn't see. Anuuj, yes, I've read one of the Witcher books ("The Last Wish"). Did so just before Witcher 2 was released, I remember there was a queue to borrow the book at the library lol.

Yup, Spellatael is the deck type I've played most since closed beta ended. I posted a decklist last page already, but have made some changes to it this patch (finally caved and crafted the gold weathers):

Drought
Ragh nar Roog
Ithlinne
Aglais

Artifact Compression
Nature's Gift
Last Wish
Summoning Circle
ADC
Marching Orders

3x DBP
3x Farseer
3x Elven Merc
1x Lacerate
2x Thunder
1x Quen
1x First Light
1x Mardroeme

I tried Yennefer in the previous iteration for a bit as well as a month back when Dagon Swarm was a thing. Nowadays, I don't think the card is that useful anymore. Might change depending on how popular NR swarm will become, however. Milva doesn't return leaders as far as I know (leaders should be stubborn).

How does gold weather work without move creatures?

I tried using Elven Mercenary + Alzur's Thunder with the Francesca deck as well, didn't like it, it didn't really kill anything and was too low tempo. Almost all the time the Mercenary was just looking for Quen anyway. Have you considered Iorveth over one of the gold weathers since all your units are elves anyway?

Also, how well does not having Yaevinn work?

Also, can I get your opinion on this list which has been proving startlingly effective (currently 10-0; don't take this too seriously though since a lot of it is in casual + my current MMR is < 2000):

Francesca - powerful consistency tool

3x Vrihedd Officer - mandatory mulligan synergies. Also smooths the mulligan (see notes).
3x Elven Wardancer - bronze thinning. Has some consistency issues (see notes).
2x Vrihedd Dragoon - these are great in a long round but the way I play the deck, rounds tend not to go really long (see notes). They're also low tempo. Still good enough to include, but I doubt at 3x.
1x Quen Sign - mandatory with Swordmasters, Elven Mercenary target.
3x Dol Blathanna Swordmasters - extremely powerful cards, they regularly hit for 16+ points even without big handbuff support.
2x Vrihedd Vanguard - mostly mulligan synergies. He's an elf = receives buffs from Iorveth = boosts Vrihedd Officer's power more when mulliganing.
1x Elven Mercenary - digs for Quen. Sorta nice to have, since if I don't need anything else Francesca for Quen is common, but Quen's a spell so Francesca's boost goes to waste otherwise.

Roach - ST silvers are so bad I gotta run something. It's not like Roach is bad either, since getting out-tempoed early while I'm setting up the Iorveth combo is a potential problem.
Aelirenn - see above. Occasionally she works miracles when Toruviel flips (I didn't know that).
Toruviel - Isengrim target, also an Elf.
Ida - I was thinking of running Vrihedd Officers and thus freeing up a silver slot, but ST silvers are so bad I just left Ida here. It's not like I have bronze space either.
Ciaran - Locks are good in the current meta, although I wouldn't say they are necessary. I'd probably have run something else if ST silvers weren't so bad. At least he's an Elf for Iorveth, and has slight synergies with Ida into Fog.
Yaevinn - Mandatory faction spy. Quite a good one too, except he'd be better if he weren't an Elf (try to play him before Iorveth!).

Iorveth - core build-around card.
Renew - to reuse Iorveth. The value is staggering.
Isengrim - he provides massive tempo, especially since he is likely to out-tempo an opposing lock unit.
Muzzle - tech choice, not sure (see notes).

This arose after I ditched all the low-tempo cards that characterize the all-in Swordmaster deck. Making a 24-power Swordmaster is great, but not really that necessary. I gave up some of the flashiness of big Swordmasters to bring in mulligan synergies. The gameplan is to Iorveth something round 1 and then pass ASAP, especially if Renew is in hand. Francesca is typically played very early for this reason, to dig up Iorveth or Renew. In round 2, a mulligan on Wardancer can prevent a drypass, otherwise play it out and keep Swordmasters for round 3 as much as possible. The deck is OK with getting bled since the Swordmasters are such powerful win conditions. Renew Iorveth ASAP and then play with a super-boosted hand. The later turns can actually get pretty dull, since eventually the deck gets to the point where it ignores the opponent and just maximizes the points it can put out.

The deck is great at finding its power plays, and in the 10-game streak I played Iorveth twice in most games + usually got Isengrim onto the board too. Weaknesses are mulligan issues in 3rd round (see note on Elven Wardancer below) and possibly if people learn how to play against it. For example right now, if I go first, quite often I will lead with Yaevinn. That's because I want to get him out before Iorveth is played. I'll do this even if my opponent goes first, since I'm fine with winning down a card if Iorveth is also triggered. However if my opponent passes immediately after the Yaevinn I have trouble triggering Iorveth. That means I'll only be able to trigger Iorveth once, and Renew becomes useless. I actually had to mulligan it away one game.

Notes on individual cards:

Ida - if the round's going to last longer than 6 turns, Fog outdamages Overdose. It does turn on the opponent's weather clear, but right now, nobody is running single-row bronze weather clear and if the opposing mage uses Clear Skies then it's also not using its 12-point nuke and it balances out.

Vrihedd Officer - one nice thing to do with this card is to not mulligan Aelirenn, Wardancer, Toruviel, etc, buff them with Iorveth, and then mulligan them with Vrihedd Officer. When Isengrim eventually plays Toruviel this way, the opponent might be counting her as 14 points when she could be 15 or 16. Devious. Of course, they can also mulligan away cards that I don't want (e.g. Roach), but typically I save my mulligans each round to mulligan away Quen and Roach, reserving boosted units for the Officer mulligan.

Elven Wardancer - typically an auto-mulligan every round, but occasionally I leave her in hand to buff with Iorveth for a later round. It's not all roses for this card however. A major problem with the deck right now is, if I'm in round 3, every time I mulligan with Vrihedd Officer I also risk drawing a Wardancer (or another Officer). It can be mitigated to some extent by having another Vrihedd Officer / Francesca, but there's no guarantee. There was one game where my last three cards were Swordmaster x2 + Officer, and I had to mulligan away an 8-point Swordmaster because the Officer is embarrassing otherwise. Imagine if I had pulled a Wardancer with the mulligan! This is partly why I'm considering Saskia.

Muzzle - the biggest target for this card is Morkvarg; it also helps vs. consume Nekkers, not-very-boosted Dragoons, etc. I am not sure it is the best choice however.

Cards I'm thinking of:

Saskia - alleviates the mulligan issue, but she's not an elf. Another problem is I could conceivably run out of bronze cards to play. Having to play a Vanguard isn't the end of the world, but it's still something better avoided. She is potentially a value target for Renew if Iorveth has no targets (Isengrim is a one-use gold), but it's unlikely she will be played early enough to be Renewed.

Dorregaray - it can consume Iorveth for Renew, which lets me push a round without having to pass early, but he's not an elf. If run with Saskia it could make for some funny combos: who would have thought that Wyvern can be the Dorregaray unit of choice (after Ekimmara)? Bringing out Drowner is also a potential combo with Ida, but it won't be a common one since Ida applying Fog is rare.

Decoy - it's annoying when Toruviel gets locked. Decoy fixes that, and if Dorregaray is included as well it might have enough targets to be good (Ida & Dorregaray) even if Toruviel isn't locked. Annoyingly though, bringing Ida back into hand also resets her (= loses all Iorveth / Dragoon buffs).

Vrihedd Brigade - single-row bronze clear is better than Clear Skies if a deck can afford it. This deck should be able to, since if they are not relevant they can be mulliganed away with Officers. It actually sounds really good except 1) I don't know what bronzes to cut and 2) if I run these, I'd drop Ida, but ST silvers are so bad I don't know what to replace her with.

Dol Blathanna Archer - helps push units into Iorveth kill range. Of course I don't want that to actually happen, but it's possible. Can also break Quen shields so my Swordmasters can get a big hit in.

Ithlinne - Ithlinne can potentially buff multiple units with Quen, which is obviously stronger than just buffing Swordmasters. Other buffed units also increase the power on Vrihedd Officer. On the other hand, losing Muzzle means I must have Mardroeme, since otherwise Nekkers are a pain.

Any thoughts, comments, etc? I would not call the deck tuned - it's actually the exact 25 I threw together after ditching the handbuff cards - but the core is proving very strong.

I usually wait 2 or 3 turns before I apply gold weather. That way my opponent usually has spread out his cards over multiple rows. Also, gold weathers are spells (buff DBPs, which in turn buffs farseers). And even if my opponent row stacks the damage is still ticking on that row till I find my lacerate.

Elven Merc + Thunder kills Enforcers . Main reason for the inclusion of the mercs is the thinning and providing access to spells I don't currently have in hand.

Iorveth does not make sense in a spell deck in my opinion. Yeah, he is 14 points usually, but the buff is not relevant as I'm at most having 2 or 3 elves in hand and it only buffs the cards I have in hand. Also I'd rather play something that has spell synergy than having a minor buff.

Quite well actually. I'm in general not very much a fan of using CA spies when there's not a great way to remove/weaken them. While this deck has removal in spades, I'd rather use that on my opponent's win conditions. That's just my personal opinion, you could very well run Yaevinn, however.

Your deck looks good. If you only get short rounds as you say, replacing the dragoons might be a good idea. Hawker Supports come to mind even though they are rather low tempo. But it would be better than losing the ability to handbuff entirely. I've yet to see someone get a good use out of Muzzle, however (The guy yesterday who's last play was Royal Decree into Muzzle into grabbing my Jade Statuette comes to mind).

Concerning the cards you're thinking of: I don't think either Decoy or Dorregaray are good options here, both seem too gimmicky and unreliable to me.

You could still consider Yaevinn since you can play him on an otherwise-empty weather'ed row.

Re my deck, thanks for the appraisal. I tried various changes, e.g. -Muzzle +Saskia, -Dragoons +Archers, and although it's continued to work OK, I'm beginning to think that there's a fundamental flaw in the strategy: since the Swordmasters are such powerful win conditions, I shouldn't be aiming to pass round one so soon; I should aim to win it and then bleed round 2. My games with the deck have gone something like "play Yaevinn / Iorveth / Francesca, pass". This often works since Iorveth is fine tempo + there's Roach. It is scary to continue, since handbuff lacks early tempo. But I'm constantly terrified of my opponent passing after the Yaevinn when I don't have an Iorveth target yet. I'm also giving my opponent free rein to dictate how long he wants round 2 to be. Even if I can stop a drypass with Wardancer, I can imagine my Eredin lists salivating over the prospect of a 9-card round 2. "So you have Ida and Francesca to find her? I've got six rows of weather, problem?"

The Dragoons also turned out to be quite good, and I missed them after dropping them. They're proactive plays I can make onto an empty board, while Archers are not. They force my opponent to do something about them instead of develop his or her own gameplan, and further, the buffs are useful for Officers / Swordmasters. I've gone back up to two. As for Archers, they're not terrible, but they're not very good either. They're very vanilla 10-power units, and definitely lean towards unviable as opposed to useful. I'm also not going to run Hawker Supports - too many bad memories with them.

Finally I guess ST silvers are crap, but there's still neutral silvers. I've been trying -Ciaran +Scorch. Have you tried Mandrake? It looks like a superior version of Scorch in this kind of deck. Scorch is at its best when you have the control tools to line up the opponent's units, but this deck doesn't, and Mandrake can permanently kill Axemen / Iris / Nekkers. It could be useful in Spelltael as well, replacing Artifact Compression.

Why can't DB Archers do 1 damage then 3

I just played this grand master in casual mode twice with Francesca. Game one he crushed me after easily milling me out. Game 2, I remembered his name and remembered his card choices as well (e.g. he has Renew) and wound up playing all three Wardancers, Aelirenn, Toruviel, etc manually. It's true he made a crucial mistake by lining up two Alba Spearmen for Scorch, but still: I felt in control all the way. Even after playing the Wardancers, Aelirenn, etc, I still had >20 points lead when he conceded.

That's my general impression of mill really. It's true the lists I'm playing are more mulligan than handbuff, but still: if you know you are playing against it before the first mulligan phase, you are hugely advantaged.

Well **** it. I couldn't find a handbuff configuration I liked, they're all bad. They're just too low on power, too low on interaction, too fragile, and too low on tempo. Unfortunately the same applies to Eredin too. I've not felt Eredin to be this bad since I started playing Gwent.

Will probably try playing spells next.

EDIT: Actually I might try playing with Succubus again, since people seem to have stopped respecting her.
EDIT #2: I actually can't stop thinking of an Iorveth deck. What the heck. I suppose I'll try a Brouver Hoog version next. Movement subtheme probably isn't happening since it won't synergize with Swordmasters, but some handbuff cards might, considering how bad Francesca is as a leader.

Banedon: If you want to play Spella'tael or Iorweth, why not both?

Eithne

Royal Decree
Muzzle
Ithlinne
Iorweth

Artifact Compression
Alzur's Double Cross
Marching Orders
Nature's Gift
Summoning Circle
Operator

First Light
Alzur's Thunder
Quen Sign
3 Mahakam Ale
3 Elven Mercenary
3 Dol Blathana Protector
3 Sage


List was published by Swim and boy, it does work.

The one card I'm on the fence about is Summoning Circle; that may be because I'm misplaying it but I haven't found it worthwile to copy an opposing Protector once they play it. Not 100% sure what to add over it, though.